Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom

 Home | Skye Downey | Logan Downey | Caleb Downey | Son: Stuart Dwight Downey & wife Karen | @Jessica Downey@ | @Kristin Downey@ | @Son: Harold Scott Downey & wife Trisha@ | @Shaun Downey@ | @Landon Downey@ | Nicholas Downey | Son: David Bruce Downey & wife Susie | Uncle Phay and Aunt Pearl Downey | Cousins Dorothy and Jean | Cousins Bill and Earl Downey | The Downey Ministry | Father: Eugene Harold Downey | Me---Harold Bruce Downey | My wife---Nancy Richardson Downey | Mother: Blanche Smithson Downey | Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom | The Smithsons---James and Ollie, et al | The Richardsons---Arne and Anna | Grandfather Michael Edward Downey | Grandmother Ellen Whitehead Black | Great Grandmother Maria McCullon Whitehead | Great Grandfather William Wilson Whitehead | Great Great Grandparents: John Whitehead and Emily Ellen Clarke Whitehead | Uncle Bob and Aunt Alma Whitehead | Cousin Marilyn Whitehead Blew | Uncle Bill Black | Cousin Julie Black Rolak | Cousin William (Billy) Black | Aunt Juanita Black | Uncle Bob and Aunt Jackie Arnold Black | Uncle Gerald Downey | Cousin Sunny Downey McCauley | Cousin Mike Downey | Cousins Woody, Denny, & Tim (Tad) Downey | Aunt Alice Downey | Uncle Ervin and Aunt Betty Downey | Related Stories | Related Songs | Contact Me | Index to all music played here
Try To Remember...

Aunt Molly Brown Hounsley (1866-1951) and Uncle Tom Hounsley (1868-1946) ---"The friends of my childhood again are before me, Each step wakes a memory as freely I roam" --- from John Oxenford's lyrics to "The Ash Grove", a Welsh tune.

whatyouvelefttome.jpg


"The harp [wind] through it playing has language for me"   ...from "The Ash Grove"  
 
Aunt Molly Brown Hounsley (1866-1951) and Uncle Tom Hounsley (1868-1946) may not have been blood relatives, but they played a very important role in my family's history and in my own childhood.  They took in my mother when she was but 15-years old and gave her a home, taught her their values, and treated her as their own child, just as they had done years before for their own nephew, Paul Brown (1898-1943) , and later Paul's son, Howard Brown (19??-19??). 
 
Aunt Molly was born on December 31, 1866 in nearby Bird Township, one of three daughters of William and Mathilda Elizabeth (Wiggins) Brown.  Her sisters were Aunt Sarah, who married Will Denby and together they had a son, Cecil Denby; and Aunt Mat (Martha), who married Tom Laycock and together they had one son, Thomas Laycock, Jr.  Aunt Mollie's brothers were Uncles Charley, Fount, Paschal, and William Brown (1871-1911).  Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom lived out most of their lives together on a 120-acre farm outside of Carlinville, near Lake Carlinville and the Hickory Point Church in Macoupin County, and close to Nilwood, IL which is where their mail came out of.
 
In 1893 Molly L. Brown married Thomas P. Hounsley---one of two Hounsley boys---and shortly thereafter, they, along with one of Aunt Molly's brothers, William Brown, and his wife Minnie Brown (1876-1900) took off for North Dakota where free land was to be had, provided they could spend five winters on it.  They lasted but one winter, during which time William's wife, Minnie, died just shortly after giving birth to her's and William's second child, Donald Brown---the younger brother of Paul Brown.  And so Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom, along with William and his two children, returned to Carlinville.  But William couldn't deal with the loss of his wife, let alone raise two young boys---and consequently, some years later on September 25, 1911 William, at the age of 40, would take his own life.  Because Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom did not have any children of their own (and apparently never could), upon their return to Carlinville they took in and raised their nephew, Paul Brown, as their own child, while Aunt Molly's and William's sister, Aunt Mat, and her husband, Uncle Tom Laycock, took in Donald Brown and raised Donald along with their own son, Thomas Laycock, Jr.
 
Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom thought the world of Paul, both as a boy and later as man.  Paul, the boy, helped with all the farm work, but Paul, the man, was not to become a farmer, for his interests lay elsewhere.  Paul was friend to all, tried a number of different jobs in and around Carlinville, married a very nice lady by the name of Elizabeth Adams, and together, Paul and Elizabeth had two children---first Howard Brown (19??-19??), followed shortly thereafter by Robert (Bob) Brown (19??-1980).  But Elizabeth and Paul's marriage quickly fell apart, as Paul seemed to drift from one job to another and his drinking problem worsened.  Elizabeth divorced Paul and left Carlinville to find work in Springfield, IL.  But as she could not care for both children, Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom took in Howard and raised him as their own, just like they had previously done with Howard's father, Paul.  Elizabeth kept her younger child, Bob Brown, with her and raised Bob as a single parent.
 
Then much later, one summer in the early 1940's I was to meet Elizabeth only once as she came to stay with Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom for a few days' visit to the farm at a time when I just happened to be there too.  At that time Elizabeth's and Paul's youngest son, Bob Brown, had already gone off to WWII, while Howard continued to remain in Carlinville working in sales for the local farm implement dealer.  It was during that wartime period that Howard met and married a very nice woman by the name of Emma __________, who brought into their marriage a little girl she had from a previous marriage.  Emma's child went by a nickname that I cannot now remember, but she was about my age and so I always had someone to relate to whenever I visited Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom.
 
Meanwhile, after WWII, in 1945 Bob Brown returned to Carlinville, and both he and his brother, Howard, bought out the local farm implement dealer that Howard had been working for.  Bob's and Howard's joint business venture prospered and in time grew into one of the largest and most successful businesses in Carlinville.  Their business soon outgrew the relatively tiny space just off the town square on the street leading to the Alton Railroad station, and so they moved their dealership to a more expansive location just outside of Carlinville on State Route 4.  Bob got married and he and his wife, June Denton Brown, had six children---3 sons and 3 daughters.  Howard and Emma had but one child of their own, a boy by the name of Billy, who quickly became a favorite of Aunt Mollie's and Uncle Tom's.  But Billy was not to have the kind of childhood experiences that both his father, Howard, and his grandfather, Paul, had as boys on Aunt Molly's and Uncle Tom's farm---for I would be the last of a line of young boys to live with Uncle Tom and Aunt Molly, if only for just summer-time visits.  Uncle Tom died in August, 1946 when I was 12 years old.  But just the month before Uncle Tom's death, I had spent the month of July, 1946 with Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom, just as I had done every summer dating back to say, 1941.
 
I shall never forget them, and to this day, the reason my wife, Nancy, and I live on a horse farm here in Montgomery County, VA near Christiansburg and Blacksburg, VA in our retirement years, is because of the many memorable summers I had as a young boy spending time with my Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom on their farm outside of Carlinville, IL. "...The ash grove, the ash grove again is my home."
 
....H. Bruce Downey, November, 2003

"Life is about 'losing count' on anything that really matters to you..."
 
All photos shown in the slide show below come from Aunt Molly's family photo album---a 100+ year old, red, cloth-bound album with its brass clasp still in place that was graciously given to me in 1999 by Paschal Brown's granddaughter, Melba Brown Austwick, who, along with her husband, Lendell, still live on their own farm outside of Carlinville, IL, near Charity Church where many of the Brown family are buried.
 
I personally can never thank Melba enough for having given up Aunt Mollie's photo album to someone like myself who is obviously outside the Brown family.  Of course Aunt Molly's album means a great deal to me, but ultimately, this heirloom belongs to the Brown family.  Accordingly, after my passing, it will be returned to whomever in the Brown family might then cherish it as much as I now do.
 
And as for Charity Church, I too remember Charity Church for the warm, mid-week summer evening revivals we would attend and for the Sunday evenings every so often when Aunt Molly, Uncle Tom, and I, with sickles in hand, would tend to the then tall grass covering the Brown family plots just steps away from the Church, with particular attention being given to their nephews' (Paul and Donald Browns') gravesites.  Note: Curiously enough, Paul and Donald died within a year of one another---first Donald in 1942 and then Paul in 1943.  And it was because of the then lack of routine maintenance of the Charity Church cemetery that Aunt Molly insisted that she and Uncle Tom be buried in town at the Carlinville Town Cemetery.  And so they are---right at the main entrance of the Carlinville Town Cemetery and right next to their pastor, The Reverend Crouch, who apparently made the same decision---perhaps for the same reason.  As it turned out, the cemetery at Charity Church today has expanded in size and is emaculately maintained, which Aunt Molly would have personally applauded.
 
Aunt Molly was a deeply religious person, a devout Christian who read her Family Bible every night of her life.  I once asked her how many times she had read the Bible completely through from beginning to end.  Aunt Molly responded by telling me that she had "lost count many years ago."
 
....H. Bruce Downey, November, 2003
 

concordgrapeskenjones50pc.jpg
Concrod Grapes---Notice the vines

Concord grapes---you don't just eat them, you know !  Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom had many Concord grape vines growing on a grape arbor Uncle Tom had built many years before I came along.  It would be summertime when I visited them and the grapes would already be very large, in big bunches like those pictured here, but they were still very sour with their thick skins covering their greenish, rather slimy fruit underneath.  But it wasn't the grapes themselves that interested me, for it was the stout grape vines themselves which I was interested in.  I got the idea that if you cut off a hunk, a kid could smoke Concord grape vines.  And so that's what I did.  After supper Uncle Tom would go outside and sit down on the back steps and chew tobacco and I would sit right beside him and light up a grape vine.  And then Uncle Tom would tell me stories about the days when he would hitch up a team of horses well before dawn and go on over to his father's and mother's old homeplace (which he always referred to as "the other place") to tend to the crops growing there.  Uncle Tom still farmed his parents' land even in my time, but by then he contracted all that work out as he had enough to do managing his own farm as he and Aunt Molly were both well into their seventies by the time I came along.  I think I had to ream out some of the pithy stuff inside the grape vine to get the smoke to come through the vine.  Anyway, I had fun smoking those Concord grape vines and listening to Uncle Tom's stories on the back steps.  And Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom didn't object to me doing it because they told me that they had done the very same thing when they were growing up as kids.  And at summer's end when I got back home I don't think I ever told my mother about smoking those grape vines.  I wonder if kids today smoke Concord grape vines...out on the back steps...or anywhere ? 
 
H. Bruce Downey, December, 2003

Don't hear anything ? Try playing this media player while viewing slides...
A group called 'America' and their song, "I need you"
---and---
Nana Mouskouri singing "The Ash Grove"...as few can.

    
All controls on these media players work

Photo order in the slide show immediately below....
  1. Aunt Molly's mother, Mathilda Elizabeth (Wiggins) Brown
  2. Aunt Molly at age 11 (a tin-type)
  3. Uncle Tom at age 7 or 8 (also a tin-type)
  4. Aunt Mollie and Uncle Tom's wedding picture (1893) #1
  5. Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom's wedding Picture (1893) # 2
  6. William Brown's (Aunt Molly's brother's) boys---Donald (at left) and his brother, Paul (at right)
  7. The three Brown girls---Aunt Molly Hounsley (at left), Aunt Sarah Denby (center), and Aunt Mat Laycock (right)
  8. The four Brown boys---Uncles Charley, Fount, Paschal, and William.  William was the father of Paul and Donald Brown---Paul being raised by Aunt Molly and Donald being raised by Aunt Mat because their own mother died giving childbirth in North Dakota
  9. On the front porch at Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom's farmhouse---Back row from left to right: Elizabeth Adams Brown [Paul Brown's wife and mother of Howard and Robert (Bob) Brown], Aunt Molly, Uncle Tom Laycock, and Uncle Tom Hounsley.  Front row from left to right: Mathilda Elizabeth (Wiggins) Brown [Aunt Molly's and Aunt Mat Brown Laycock's mother], Aunt Mat Laycock, and Donald Brown.  Missing from this family photo is Donald's older brother, Paul, who must have been busy taking this photo.
  10. Uncle Tom with one of his prized sheep (a 'Hello Dearie' tin-type).
  11. Back row from left to right: Lewis Brown (son of Paschal Brown and father of Melba Brown Austwick and of her brother, Paschal Brown III), Paul Brown, Maria Brown (wife of ????? Brown), Cecil Denby (son of Aunt Sara Brown Denby and Will Denby), and one other unidentified Brown family member.  Kneeling from left to right: Melba Brown (Austwick) at 16 or so, and two other unidentified Brown family members.  This picture was taken around 19?? on ________'s farm 
  12. Uncle Tom (right) with nephew, Paul Brown, at left
  13. Uncle Tom (looking just as I remember him) with Howard Brown---one of Paul and Elizabeth Brown's two sons, the other being Robert (Bob) Brown.  This picture was probably taken in the mid to late 1930's
  14. Aunt Molly outside the screened-in porch of their farmhouse in the early 1940's looking just as I remember her
  15. Aunt Molly in the yard at Uncle Tom and Aunt Mat's farm in the late 1940's with Charles Brown, a son of Uncle Charley Brown---one of Aunt Molly's and Aunt Mat's brothers
  16. In the front yard of Aunt Molly's and Uncle Tom's farmhouse circa 1944---That's me, Bruce Downey ("Blanche's boy") with Aunt Molly, their dog (Brunee), and Uncle Tom holding Snooks.  Brunee would later die on the very same day as did Uncle Tom in August, 1946
  17. In Aunt Molly's and Uncle Tom's barnyard circa 1945---That's me, Bruce, with Tony, the pony (less than 14-hands high)
  18. Some 50-years later in the run-in shed at Bruce and Nancy's horse farm in Christiansburg,VA---That's me, Bruce, with "Secret" and her foal, "April" in the Spring of 1997

      Watch photos in "full-screen mode" by clicking on above.

 
There are two songs featured here. The first is the Beatles'  song, "I need you" sung here by a group called "America".  I chose this tune for the song's lyrics and their applicability to my times with with my Aunt Molly and Uncle Tom.  These lyrics are worth repeating here.  They are as follows:---
We used to laugh, we used to cry
We used to bow our heads then, wonder why
And now you're gone, I guess I'll carry on
And make the best of what you've left to me
Left to me, left to me

I need you like the flower needs the rain
You know I need you, guess I'll start it all again
You know I need you like the winter needs the spring
You know I need you, I need you

And every day, I'd laugh the hours away
Just knowing you were thinking of me
And then it came that I was put to blame
For every story told about me
About me, about me

I need you like the flower needs the rain
You know I need you, guess Ill start it all again
You know I need you, I need you
I need you like the winter needs the spring
You know I need you, guess I'll start it all again
You know I need you, I need you
 
 
 
And the second song is "The Ash Grove" --- a very old Welsh tune having many lyricists down through the years, each providing their own poetic words, but always sung to the same tune.  The version sung here by Nana Mouskouri features lyrics by John Oxenford, which you can find at the very top right of this webpage. 






Aunt Molly Brown Hounsley (1866-1951) and Uncle Tom Hounsley (1868-1946) ---"The friends of my childhood again are before me, Each step wakes a memory as freely I roam" --- from John Oxenford's lyrics to "The Ash Grove", a Welsh tune.